Coal continued process, South Africa

The high cost of coal handling and preparation and treatment of effluents, compounded by continuing low prices for cmde oil and natural gas, has precluded significant exploitation of coal as a feedstock for methanol. A small amount of methanol is made from coal in South Africa for local strategic reasons. Tennessee Eastman operates a 195,000-t/yr methanol plant in Tennessee based on the Texaco coal gasification process to make the methyl acetate intermediate for acetic anhydride production (15). 

Although the Fischer-Tropsch process (based on coal) has been uneconomic for many years compared to oil-based routes, the peculiar political situation of South Africa allied with its large reserves of cheap coal led it to continue operating this process. Indeed, the experience gained led in the 1970s to the building of a second-generation plant, (the scheme for this SASOL II plant is shown in Fig. 2.4" ) and a SASOL III plant is now on stream. 

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